Andromeda Unchained
by Speaker-to-Customers
Summary: Episode rewrite for 3.01 'Into the Fire'. Why would Hathor devote so much effort into making SG-1 think they were in the future, right down to building a replica of the SGC, when she could just stick a symbiote into Jack? What if there was a logical reason for her actions? And what if there was a logical reason behind her habit of always speaking in the plural?
1. You've been taken in and restrained

Disclaimer: 'Stargate: SG1' was created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner and is owned by MGM Television Entertainment and Gekko Productions. Some dialogue is taken directly from the original episode written by Brad Wright. The identity of Hathor's host is taken from the Stargate SG-1 Roleplaying Game.

Author's Note: I said originally that I would post the final part of this story on Friday 11th July. However just as I was about to post it I realized that the last part was below par and I decided to hold back posting and give it a re-write first. Sorry for the delay!

**One: You've been taken in and restrained…**

They had been cryogenically frozen for eighty years, or so they had been told, but they were coming to the conclusion that this was a lie.

Daniel Jackson followed Jack O'Neill and Sam Carter into the deserted embarkation room. Daniel stood at the bottom of the ramp, surveying his surroundings, while Jack and Sam climbed the ramp towards the Stargate. Jack grimaced and kicked the Gate. "It's a fake," he announced.

Daniel opened a weapons locker set into the wall. It was empty. "I don't understand," he said, shutting the locker. "Who would have spent enough time on the base to be able to reproduce it in this sort of detail?"

Jack and Sam exchanged looks. Jack raised an eyebrow.

Daniel pursed his lips. There were only two names that occurred to him and both were unwelcome. "You don't think… Apophis…?" he began.

A female voice interrupted him. "Silence!"

The air in front of a section of wall began to ripple and then Daniel saw Hathor appear out of the distortion.

"Oh, I was so hoping never to see you again," Jack said.

The gate-room doors opened. The man they knew as the future SGC officer Major-General Trofsky came in through one door, accompanied by three Jaffa in the uniforms of Horus Guards and one Serpent Guard, and through the other entered Dr. Sarah Raully and four more armed Jaffa.

Hathor walked up to Daniel. "We have indeed missed you, our beloved," she said, and stroked his cheek. Daniel flinched away. This was the worst case scenario. He'd rather have faced Apophis.

"Daniel, don't let her breathe on you," Sam warned, unnecessarily.

Hathor raised an eyebrow. "Do you think that we would have gone to these lengths if you were not already immune to that poison?" She moved away from Daniel and went to stand behind Trofsky. She rested a hand on the armored shoulder of one of the Jaffa. "Do you like our guards?" she asked. "We managed to lure them from the remote outposts of our enemies."

No-one replied. Daniel backed away a few steps.

"We are quietly building our forces before the System Lords even know that we are alive," Hathor continued. "But doing so is difficult when we have limited knowledge of the current state of the Empire."

"Let me take a guess," Jack said. "It's just a wild guess, but… that's where we come in, right?"

"We know more than you do," Sam added.

Hathor nodded. "That is correct." She looked at each SGC member in turn. "We are prepared to offer you a life of luxury as advisors in our Court in exchange for information." She came out from behind Trofsky and walked up the ramp to stop in front of Jack. "If that is not to your taste then we could find other inducements."

"Yeah, I can guess, the old pain stick routine," Jack said, resigning himself to yet another session of Goa'uld torture.

Hathor shook her head. "We do not intend to torture you. We would hardly have bothered with this elaborate charade if mere interrogation would have served our purpose."

"Then what?" Jack wasn't sure whether he should feel relieved or worried.

"Negotiation," said Hathor. "We bear no animosity toward the Tau'ri. We recognize that you acted against us in self-defense and will forgive you."

"Big of you," Jack said.

Hathor tilted her head to one side and her brows furrowed. "The idiom is unfamiliar but we believe we can interpret the meaning. Yes, we are being magnanimous. We will continue to show magnanimity. Tell us, how may we make contact with the Asgard that we may offer them an alliance?"

"Try Roswell," Jack said. "Little place in New Mexico."

"We heard of Roswell, as we made our way from the site of our imprisonment to the base in which you keep the Chappa'ai," Hathor said, "and it is our understanding that the belief amongst the Tau'ri populace that alien specimens are kept there is, in fact, misdirection by your authorities; perhaps to preserve the secret of the Chappa'ai. You are being uncooperative."

"Well, yeah," Jack said. "It's what we do. We don't cooperate with the Goa'uld."

"We do not ask you to," Hathor said. "Your suspicion is understandable but we assure you that we have no greater affection for the System Lords than do you. We believe that the System Lords would imprison us and use us merely as breeding stock. Our independence is important to us. We can offer you much if you ally with us, or else provide us with information that would enable us to forge an alliance, on favorable terms, with another party."

"Excuse me for not believing a word you say," Jack said, "but I don't."

"We acknowledge that our past actions have given you reason for mistrust," Hathor said. "This is regrettable. We assure you that we no longer have hostile intentions toward you of the Tau'ri and request peace, or at least a truce, between us."

"Over my dead body," Jack replied. "Or, better still, over yours."

Hathor's eyes flashed. "You are testing our patience," she said, speaking in her Goa'uld voice for the first time.

"Great Queen," Trofsky said, "the Tau'ri's intransigence knows no bounds. I humbly suggest that you should slay them for their insolence and find some other subjects."

"Your suggestion is noted," Hathor said, "but rejected." She turned away from Jack. "Captain Carter," she said, returning to her human voice, "you who were primarily responsible for defeating us in our earlier confrontation, will you be more reasonable than your commander? Or Daniel, our beloved? Perhaps you could assist us in making contact with the Tok'ra."

"Forget it," Sam said. "I won't lift a finger to help you."

"The same goes for me," Daniel said.

"The Tok'ra?" Trofsky stared at Hathor with wide eyes. "You would ally yourself with those treacherous enemies of the Goa'uld?"

"The Tok'ra have no Queen," Hathor said. "We believe they would be able to offer advantageous terms in return for us accepting that position."

"The Tok'ra would never take a Goa'uld as their Queen," Raully put in, "and they would never trust you."

"Egeria disappeared long before even our imprisonment," Hathor said. "We are, as we believe the Tau'ri say, 'the only game in town'. Perhaps they may rethink their position. Worry not, we would make your safety and security a condition of any such deal; we do not cast aside those who have served us faithfully." She turned away from Raully and fixed her gaze on Daniel Jackson. "Well, Daniel our beloved," she said, in her most seductive tones, "will you tell us how we may deliver a message unto them?"

"You _raped_ me," Daniel spat out. "I won't tell you anything."

Hathor stepped back a pace. "I did not know," she said, in her Goa'uld voice, speaking in the first person singular for the first time that Jack could remember. "Andromédē did not warn me that you would think of it that way."

She reverted to her human voice. "_Prosphilôs' moi e'khe, lis'somai, basilissa mou_," she said.

"Be kindly disposed to me, I entreat you, my Queen," Daniel muttered, automatically translating. His eyebrows climbed. "Huh?"

Hathor cocked her head to one side and stood absolutely motionless for a few seconds. "We… apologize," she said, straightening up. "It was our belief that human males consider only the pleasure of the act and care little for the identity of the partner. We have made a grave mistake. We understand, now, the hatred you bear for us."

"Fake apologies won't get you anywhere," Daniel said.

"Who the Hell is 'Andromeda'?" Jack asked. "You had an accomplice on Earth?"

"I am Andromédē, Princess of Milētos," Hathor said, "host to the divine Hathor."

"You're the _host_?" Jack didn't believe it. To the Goa'uld their human hosts were just biological machines, ways for their slimy worm bodies to get their… non-existent… hands on real hands, and voices, and legs. A Goa'uld would never allow a host to speak for herself.

"I am," Hathor claimed. Her voice had changed slightly, becoming subtly different in tone from the way she spoke when referring to herself in the plural, although Jack couldn't really pin the difference down. A trace of an accent, perhaps? "My father, Cepheus, rebelled against Hathor and was defeated. He humbled himself before her and offered me to her as tribute. She accepted and spared the city."

"Milētos," Daniel mused. "An Ancient Greek colony in what is now Turkey." He put a hand to his mouth and tapped his lower lip with his fingers. "Cepheus was supposed to have been king of Ethiopia but the Greeks tended to apply that name to a lot of places in Africa and the Middle East. In one version of the myth he was the ruler of Jaffa…."

Hathor's eyes flashed silver. "He did not rule my Jaffa," she said, in the voice of a Goa'uld. "He was defeated by them. It amused me to take his daughter as my host." Her voice reverted to human. "It could have been a lot worse," she said. "My divine mistress has treated me well and I have lived many times longer than I would have done otherwise. All praise Hathor the great, the merciful, and the kind."

"That's not exactly an unbiased recommendation," said Jack. "It's like me saying 'All hail Jack O'Neill, the resourceful, the brave, and the wise-cracking."

Hathor nodded. "We understand," she said, her human voice changing again and the hint of accent disappearing, "but as we do not seek your obeisance it is of no importance. We desire only information at this time. Be assured that we do not seek the conquest of your planet. That would be neither feasible nor desirable. We aim only to preserve our lives, and our freedom, and to establish a domain with sufficient resources to be defensible. In the pursuit of that objective we are willing to make whatever alliances are necessary. Even with the Tau'ri or the Tok'ra."

"Alliances that you'd break in a New York minute if you thought you could get a better deal elsewhere," Jack said.

"A New York minute?" Hathor's brow furrowed. "Why would one of the major cities of your continent use a different measure of time from other cities? Would that not cause confusion and perhaps even jeopardize lives?"

"It's an idiom," Daniel explained, "derived from the reputation New Yorkers have for being impatient and always in a hurry." Jack couldn't help but smile. Daniel was a born educator. If he was about to be hanged, and the hangman asked him to explain the difference between the Assyrians and the Hittites, Daniel would be delivering an informative lecture even as the noose was being adjusted around his neck.

"Ah." Hathor nodded. "We see. No, we would not break an alliance once it had been entered into," she claimed. "That would be counter-productive, even if it obtained a short-term gain, for it would make prospective future allies mistrustful. As our ill-judged attempt to seize your base has made you distrustful of us now."

"Yeah, it has," Jack said, "and that's putting it mildly."

"Regrettable," said Hathor, "but it is impossible to change our past actions. We can only state that we will act in a different fashion in the future. We will make no further attempts to take over your planet. With your numbers, and level of technological development, such an attempt would be foredoomed to failure and therefore is pointless. Either an alliance or a truce would be more logical."

"For you, maybe," said Jack, "but not for us."

"We could give you some insights into Goa'uld technology," Hathor offered. "It will be out of date, of course, as there will have been advancements during our time in stasis of which we are unaware, but we do not doubt that it will still be of value to you. Or," she said, a smile playing on her lips and her gaze focusing on Daniel, "we could give you much information about the past of your world in exchange for further information about the current state of the galaxy."

Daniel raised a hand to his face and touched his lower lip with his fingers. He shook his head. "No," he said, sounding as if the words were being dragged out of him. "I'm not going to tell you anything that might help you get more power. Or help any other Goa'uld get more power."

"Yeah, what Daniel said," Jack agreed. "We're not going to tell you a thing."

"You are basing your decision on emotion rather than logic," Hathor said, "but we sense that you will not soon change your minds. Disappointing but understandable. Perhaps, then, you will put us in touch with the Tok'ra?"

Trofsky glowered at SG-1 and it seemed to Jack that the phony SGC officer was including Hathor in his disapproving expression. Dr. Raully, in contrast, had a worried frown on her face.

"The Tok'ra would never allow their location to be divulged to a Goa'uld," Raully said. "I recommend that you treat any Gate address these men give you with extreme suspicion. It may be false and designed to lead you into a trap."

"We appreciate your concern, Raully," Hathor said, "but we would not put ourselves at risk by traveling to a Tok'ra base without having received satisfactory guarantees of our safety. No, we propose to extend an invitation to the Tok'ra, by way of SG-1, for them to send an emissary to us to conduct negotiations."

"You're going to let them go?" Raully's eyebrows climbed high.

"We are," Hathor confirmed. "We have little choice. To do otherwise would eliminate all possibility of a future alliance. To keep them here is pointless. Better to make a gesture of good faith and release them with a request that they pass on our message to the Tok'ra. Remove the memory reading devices from them. Exercise due care during the procedure so that they do not come to harm." She turned back toward SG-1. "Once that is done you are free to depart."

"My Lady, I protest!" Trofsky objected. "They are our enemies! The information should be ripped from them through rigorous interrogation and torture."

"If they are our enemies it is as a result of our own actions," Hathor replied, "and we see no need to make an unfortunate situation worse. The whole point of this deception was to obtain information without doing further harm and thus causing the Tau'ri's enmity to increase. It has failed. Let that be an end to it. Perhaps their commander, Hammond of Texas, will be willing to send us information on the disposition and alliances prevailing amongst the System Lords. Perhaps the Tok'ra will be agreeable to an alliance or to accepting us as their Queen. Neither will happen if we inflict torture upon these redoubtable warriors. We have spoken."

"I obey, my Lady," Trofsky assented, although both his tone and his posture indicated that he was acutely unhappy with the idea. He stood in silence, his brows lowered in a frown, as Raully applied a salve that seemed to function as a local anesthetic to the temples of the SG-1 members and then carefully removed the implanted devices.

"Conduct them to the Chappa'ai, Trofsky," Hathor ordered, once Raully had finished and had applied dressings to the places from which the devices had been removed, "and allow them to depart. Then return to me."

"My Queen," Dr. Raully put in, in a much more respectful manner than Trofsky had shown, "it is my understanding that the Tau'ri keep the codes to disarm their barricade a closely guarded secret. They will not transmit those codes if they may be observed."

Hathor nodded. "Indeed so," she said. "We thank you, Raully, for reminding us of that factor. Very well, Trofsky, leave the Tau'ri at the Chappa'ai and then withdraw so that they may preserve their secrecy as they depart." She turned to face SG-1. "Farewell," she said. "Here is the Gate address of this planet. If you do not use it yourselves then pass it on to the Tok'ra. But advise them, and your General if he should decide to take advantage of our offer, that our defensive installations are formidable."

Jack noticed Dr. Raully's eyes widen fractionally as Hathor made that declaration. Raully seemed to be trying to keep her expression neutral, and Jack doubted if Hathor or Trofsky had noticed, but Jack was pretty sure that something about what Hathor had said had alarmed her. The only explanation that came to mind was that Raully hadn't known about the defenses and had plans of her own which the defenses jeopardized. And that implied Raully was an agent for some other group; almost certainly, taking into consideration some of the things she had said, the Tok'ra. If so then Jack could leave the question of whether or not to inform the Tok'ra of Hathor's offer to Raully.

"An unannounced arrival by an armed party of more than four emissaries may be treated as an invasion and repelled violently," Hathor continued. "Those who arrive peacefully, in small numbers, will be met with courtesy." She handed Jack a plastic rectangle printed with Gate symbols.

Jack's first inclination was to refuse to take it but he decided that accepting the card would be the safer option. He still couldn't believe Hathor's apparent change of heart was genuine but, if she was faking it, rejecting her gesture might cause her to lose her temper and revert to the standard Goa'uld torture techniques. Better to play along.

"We'll need our gear back," he said.

Hathor nodded. "Of course," she said, "although your weapons will not be returned to you until you have left this complex. Trofsky, see to it."

"As you command," Trofsky answered. His frown was by now so pronounced that the groove between his eyebrows resembled the gorge from the final scene of 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'. "Follow me… Tau'ri." He didn't go quite as far as to finish the sentence with 'scum' but it was implied in his tone.

"Lead on, Macduff," Jack said.

"Actually it's 'Lay on, Macduff," Daniel corrected him.

"I know, Daniel," Jack said. "And damned be him who first cries 'Hold! Enough!' What, are you trying to win the Nobel Prize for pedantry?"

"Actually they don't have a Nobel Prize for pedantry," Sam said, with a smile, "but, if they had, I'd have just won it."

Trofsky fumed. Raully's lips formed into a smile. And, much to Jack's surprise, Hathor actually uttered a small chuckle.

"_Terthreia_," Hathor said, only just audibly, and Jack saw Daniel's eyebrows shoot up. Jack had no idea what Hathor had said, except that it wasn't in Goa'uld, but he guessed it was Ancient Greek. Was Hathor translating for the benefit of the host, Andromeda? Surely not. A Goa'uld wouldn't do that. But if not that, then what?

Trofsky looked as if he was about to explode and Jack decided not to push his luck any further. He took a couple of steps in the direction the man – or, more likely, the Jaffa or perhaps minor Goa'uld – was indicating. He'd rather have been escorted by Raully, in light of his deductions, but making a request to that effect was unlikely to achieve anything other than to put the presumed Tok'ra agent under suspicion. But there was one more question that he had to ask.

"Hey, Hathor! What happened to Teal'c?"

"Fear not, the Shol'va has come to no harm," Hathor replied. "He was of no use to us for this scheme, as his ability to sense the prim'ta within our Jaffa would not be blocked by sedatives, and so he was merely rendered unconscious and left behind. Slaying your comrade would have ensured that your enmity remained implacable and so we commanded that he be spared."

"He'll be looking for us," Jack said.

"No doubt," Hathor agreed, "and therefore you should delay no further in returning to your planet. Go now." She turned her back on Jack. "Raully, prepare a report on what you managed to gather from their memories. Pay particular attention to anything that would show how to make contact with the Tok'ra."

"I obey, my Queen," Raully said. She turned and exited the replica embarkation room, at a fast walk, presumably headed for her laboratory.

There was no more reason for Jack to stall and so he went along with Trofsky. Daniel and Sam followed behind with four Jaffa guards bringing up the rear. They left the fake SGC area and went into the zone that was decorated in typical Goa'uld style, although the gold on the walls was paint rather than the actual metal; Hathor must be too short of resources, after putting so much into creating the replica of Stargate Command, to have much remaining for mere decoration. After traversing a couple of corridors Trofsky opened a door and revealed a store-room, lined with shelves, containing their BDUS, packs, and weapons.

"Take your primitive devices," Trofsky growled. He gestured with his zat to indicate that they should enter the room.

Jack was surprised by this; Hathor had instructed that their weapons wouldn't be returned until they had been escorted out of the complex. Perhaps Trofsky had decided that carrying them, only to hand them over later, was pointless and was interpreting Hathor's instructions loosely to save him the bother of carrying the weapons around. Jack went into the store-room, as did Daniel and Sam, and was just reaching for the nearest back-pack when Trofsky, without warning, suddenly zatted him.

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

Jack groaned and stirred. He found he was lying on the floor of that same store-room. Daniel lay still beside him; Sam, a couple of feet further away, was sitting up and shaking her head. Jack began to clamber to his feet and as he rose he realized that a fourth body lay in the room; a Jaffa, lying motionless on his back, eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling.

"What the hell just happened?" Jack muttered. He looked around and, to his astonishment, saw that their equipment – including their MP5A3s – still lay on the shelves. He bent over Daniel, saw that his friend was breathing and was beginning to stir, and turned to grab one of the submachine guns. He quickly checked it and found that it was fully loaded and didn't appear to have been tampered with in any way.

"Trofsky knocked us out," Sam said. She was engaged in helping Daniel to his feet and Jack wasn't sure to which of them she was talking. "Why would he do that? It's not what Hathor told him to do."

"He has to be working some angle of his own," Jack said, "and, whatever it is, it can't mean anything good." He looked down at the dead Jaffa, noticing the serpent tattoo that showed the bearer to have been in the service of Apophis originally, and deducing from the lack of visible wounds that the Jaffa had been killed by being zatted twice. "I'm guessing this guy didn't want to go along with it."

"But why leave us with access to our weapons?" Sam wondered. She followed Jack's example and checked the other MP5. "It seems counter-productive."

Jack opened the room door and looked out to see an empty corridor. "I don't get it," he admitted. "He didn't even lock us in – although it would only have taken us thirty seconds to get out if he had locked the door."

"He's even left us our C-4 and detonators," Sam commented. "Maybe he just couldn't be bothered to take us to the Stargate and is leaving us to find our own way out. Except that doesn't make sense because he could have just told us that. It's not like we'd have objected."

"More likely he wants us to wander around until we get shot by Jaffa who haven't been told Hathor released us and think we're breaking out," Jack said. "Better be ready for a firefight."

"_Terthreia_," Daniel said, presumably thinking aloud. "Ancient Greek for 'pedantry'. Why was Hathor translating for Andromédē unless she really does treat her host as a person? Could she actually be sincere?"

"Ponder that some other time, Daniel," Jack said. "Grab your sidearm and let's move."

Daniel looked at the BDUs folded up on the shelves, looked down at the pajamas that he still wore, and pursed his lips. No doubt he was considering changing into more practical clothing but, for the moment, he contented himself with picking up a Beretta and holster that lay atop the clothes. He passed the weapon to Sam and took a second for himself. Then he paused and frowned. "That's odd," he said. "There's one pistol missing. The holster's there, but no gun."

"Maybe we dropped it when we were captured," Sam said.

"That's possible," Daniel said, "but they picked up everything else we were carrying. I think it was here and Trofsky took it. But why?"

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

Hathor broke off from touching up her lip rouge and stood up as Trofsky entered. She fixed him with a cold glare. "Why have you entered our chamber uninvited?" she snapped. "And there has not been time for you to have completed your assigned task. Why have you returned prematurely?"

"Shol'va!" Trofsky growled. "You betray the Goa'uld." He brought his right hand out from behind his back. He was holding a Beretta M9. Hathor tried to raise her kara kesh hand device, to put up a defensive shield, but Trofsky pulled the trigger before she could complete the move. The range was point-blank, even for someone unaccustomed to Earth weapons, and Hathor cried out and doubled up clutching at her stomach. "Die, Tok'ra scum!" Trofsky growled. He fired again and she collapsed to the floor.

Trofsky tossed the pistol into a corner and turned to the three Jaffa who stood in the doorway behind him. "Spread the word that the Tau'ri have escaped and have slain Hathor," he said. "They are to be killed on sight."

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

Colonel Makepeace led the men of three SG teams into Hathor's pyramid. So far they had encountered no opposition but they were on high alert. It was too good to last. Then the sound of gunfire reached their ears; not the staff weapons and zats of Jaffa guards but the distinctive chatter of H&K MP5s.

The firefight was taking place only a short distance along a corridor. The three members of SG-1 were caught between two parties of Jaffa; one group of four blocking their path to the exit and a larger band coming up from behind. Using the recesses at the corridor sides as cover Jack and Daniel were holding off the pursuers while Sam tried to eliminate the smaller force and clear the way for their escape.

Two bullet-ridden Jaffa corpses on the floor gave mute witness to the superiority of the handy and accurate Earth firearms over the unwieldy staff weapons and inaccurate zat'nik'tels of the Jaffa. However, as Clausewitz said, quantity has a quality of its own and the superior numbers of the opposition had SG-1 at a distinct disadvantage. The arrival of Makepeace and his men quickly tipped the scales. Their firepower dropped several of the Jaffa and sent the remainder into retreat.

Makepeace raised his eyebrows as Jack stepped out into the corridor. "You're out of uniform, Jack," he remarked.

Jack glanced down at the white pants and collarless jacket, taken from one of the fake base's 'medical personnel', that he and Sam were wearing. "Kinda stylish, don't you think?" he said. "Makes us look like the good guys in a Kung Fu movie." He slotted a new magazine home into his MP-5. "Getting the hell out of Dodge was more urgent than putting on our BDUs. Speaking of which, let's get moving before those guys come back with friends."

"So, you escaped again," Makepeace said, as they made their way back to the exit. "I should have known. We could have stayed home."

"Actually Hathor let us go," Daniel said.

"Funny, I could have sworn a dozen Jaffa were trying to stop you getting away," Makepeace said. "It sure looked that way to me."

"Hathor's chief stooge is playing some game of his own," Jack explained. "Hathor told him to take us to the Stargate and then give us back our gear. Instead he zatted us and dumped us in the closet where our stuff was stashed. I think he was setting us up to get shot while escaping. Hathor didn't exactly make a public announcement that she was setting us free."

"I don't get why he left us all our weapons," Sam put in. "I would have expected him to take them away or, at best, leave us just a pistol or two. We came pretty close to fighting our way out even without the rescue party. He can't have wanted that."

"He didn't leave us all the weapons," Daniel reminded her. "One pistol was missing." He bit on his bottom lip briefly. "Maybe he wanted to shoot someone and blame us. Dr. Raully, I'd guess, to get rid of a rival for the chief henchman slot."

"I think you've hit the nail on the head," Jack said. "I hope he doesn't shoot Raully. I think she's a Tok'ra."

Makepeace nodded. "The Tok'ra told us where to find you and gave us intel on the layout," he said. "They have an agent in place and, if you think it's this Raully, you're probably correct." By this time they had made it out of the pyramid and he looked over his shoulder. "We'll have to leave her to deal with that Trofsky character herself," Makepeace said. "If we go back in and try to interfere we'll blow her cover."

"Did you have any problems getting here?" Jack asked.

"No, we didn't encounter any resistance at all until we met up with you guys," Makepeace answered. "The Tok'ra said the place was lightly defended and it looks like they were right."

"Hathor said she had strong defenses," Jack said, "and it was the way Raully reacted that made me think she was a Tok'ra agent. Funny you didn't have any problems. Maybe Hathor was bluffing, but I don't think so. Unless it's an automated system and she switched it off so it didn't blast us on the way out."

"In which case we'd better watch out in case Trofsky's switched it back on," Sam said.

"Good thinking," said Jack. "Hey, where's Teal'c? I would have thought he'd be here."

"Teal'c was badly injured and he's only just gotten out of sickbay," Makepeace informed him. "He wasn't going to be allowed to come on this mission so he quit and went home to do his own thing."

"Teal'c quit? Crap," Jack groaned. "Still, maybe he'll return when he finds out we're back and okay."

"Injured?" Sam's forehead creased. "Hathor said he'd just been knocked out and left beside the Stargate. And the funny thing is I don't think she was lying."

"Trofsky again," Jack said, "getting creative with his interpretation of orders and his after-mission reports. Between him, and Raully being a Tok'ra agent, it looks like Hathor was nil for two in her choice of loyal lieutenants."

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

Raully held a levelled zat as she entered Hathor's chamber. Hathor tried to get to her feet, grabbing at the bed for support, but succeeded only in dragging the bedclothes to the floor and collapsing again. Her red and gold silken robe was almost entirely red from the waist down and a pool of blood on the floor began soaking into the fallen bedding.

"My Queen!" Raully exclaimed. She collapsed the zat, and slipped it into her pocket, then rushed to Hathor's side. "What happened?" Her hand came out of her pocket holding a Goa'uld healing device. "Trofsky said that the Tau'ri had slain you."

Hathor's lips moved as she tried to speak but she could utter only incoherent gasps and moans. Raully hesitated, as if debating with herself, and then activated the healing device and began to heal Hathor's wounds.

"Not… the… Tau'ri," Hathor gasped out. "Trofsky. He shot… us."

Raully gave a slight nod but made no other answer. She was concentrating on her healing task. After a minute she stopped, lowered the device, and bent to examine Hathor's abdomen. "Can you roll over?" Raully asked.

Hathor's attempt resulted in her becoming entangled in the blood-sodden bedding and Raully had to help her to get free and to turn over. She examined Hathor's back and then used the healing device again. "One of the bullets is still inside," Raully observed. "You will not heal fully until it can be removed."

"That… must wait," Hathor said. "Trofsky's treachery must be punished. And he may have slain the Tau'ri. That would mean war with the SGC and the end of our hopes for an alliance. If the Tau'ri yet live we must save them."

Raully took hold of Hathor's arm and helped her to her feet. "Do not exert yourself," she cautioned. "The bullet within you may cause further damage. It could rupture a major blood vessel and you might bleed to death faster than you could heal yourself."

Hathor said something in a language incomprehensible to Raully. Her eyes flashed and she spoke again, in the same language, but this time in the metallic tones of a Goa'uld.

"I don't understand," Raully said.

"Andromédē was concerned," Hathor said, still using her Goa'uld voice. "I reassured her that I shall take no foolish chances and will do my best to heal further damage as fast as it occurs."

Raully smiled. "I am proud to serve you, my Queen," she said. "I shall remove the bullet as soon as Trofsky has been neutralized." Her smile faded. "Although performing such an operation, without endangering your life, will test my skills to the limit," she admitted. "I am accustomed to using the healing device but unpracticed at surgery. The doctors of the Tau'ri would be best qualified to operate… but they may not be willing."

"We shall, as the Tau'ri say, cross that bridge when we come to it," Hathor said, reverting to her human voice. She took a couple of wobbly steps. Raully supported her with an arm and Hathor made it to the corner of the room where the discarded pistol lay. "Can you use Tau'ri firearms?" Hathor asked.

"I have never done so," Raully said, "although the principles behind them seem simple enough."

"We saw them fired when we were on Earth," Hathor said. "Pass it to us. We deem that using it to execute Trofsky would be just. The pain is greater than that from a zat'nik'tel and a staff weapon would slay him too quickly and mercifully. And we do not, at present, feel strong enough to use a kara kesh."

Raully picked up the pistol and handed it to Hathor. She held it for a moment, feeling its weight, and then tucked it muzzle-first through one of the leather straps that linked her brassiere and her bloodstained panties. She avoided the area where the bullets had struck and selected a strap on the opposite side of her stomach. It did not occur to her that the safety lever of the pistol was in the off position and the hammer was cocked back. A touch on the trigger would be enough to fire the gun and send another bullet into her lower abdomen.

Hathor slipped off her robe and cast it aside. "The blood-sodden cloth hampers our movements," she said. "Pass a fresh garment to us. Then we must go."

Raully opened a closet, grabbed the first robe that came to hand, and passed it to Hathor. It was bright turquoise, and did not go at all well with the red and gold of the bra and pants, but Hathor contented herself with wrinkling her nose and donned the garment nonetheless.

"Raully," she said, as she slipped on the robe, "we thank you for your aid and your loyalty. We shall show our gratitude when there is more time. For now, know that it means a lot to us; all the more because, as a female, you are impervious to our charms."

"You have won my respect through your actions," Raully said, with a silent mental aside of 'Mainly due to the consideration you have shown for your host Andromeda. I believe you could be a worthy Queen of the Tok'ra.' She continued "And I am glad to acknowledge you as my Queen."

"We thank you," Hathor said again, and then she cocked her head and listened. "That is strange," she said. "We hear the sound of the shield generator. We did not command that it should be activated. Trofsky must have done so."

"Perhaps to prevent the Tau'ri from reaching the Chappa'ai and departing," Raully suggested. "Should we deactivate the shield?"

"Not yet," Hathor said. "It may be that there is an attacking force coming through. If it is another group of Tau'ri, searching for SG-1, then it may be best to keep them outside the shield until we can explain Trofsky's treachery and avert further conflict. We must learn the true situation before we can act."

"That would be wise," Raully agreed. She walked close alongside Hathor as they left the bedchamber, ready to support the wounded Queen if she had difficulty, and she drew her zat again ready for action.

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 –

"Fall back!" Colonel Makepeace yelled. "Make for the tree-line!"

An impenetrable energy barrier blocked their path toward the Stargate and two staff cannons, mounted on towers that had risen from previously empty ground, were firing on the SG teams. Trofsky, now clad in Jaffa armor, lurked beyond the shield with a small guard of Jaffa and more Jaffa were approaching along the track from the pyramid complex.

Two SG troopers were hit by fire from the sentry guns and fell dead. Daniel was knocked over by a near miss but got up immediately and appeared to be unhurt.

Suddenly Makepeace disappeared from sight. He popped up again, an instant later, and shouted "This way! This way! Tunnels!"

Jack and Sam were right behind him and jumped down into an open space that they recognized, from what they had seen on their visit to the Tok'ra base, as a tunnel created by Tok'ra crystal technology. They moved quickly away from the exit to allow the remainder of Makepeace's men, and Daniel, to jump down to join them.

"Tok'ra tunnels," Sam said. "This must be how the agent – Raully – gets in and out of the complex to send messages back to base."

Makepeace was speaking into his radio. "No answer from the men I left to secure the Gate," he told Jack. "They must be dead or captives."

"If they're on the other side of the energy barrier we'll have to get through it before we can do anything to help them," Jack said. "It's a pretty good defense. Hathor wasn't bluffing. Hey, maybe we can go under it through these tunnels."

"Good idea, sir," Sam agreed. "Daniel, are you okay? I saw you go down."

"I'm fine," Daniel said. "My left arm's a little scratched up but that's all. It's not going to slow me down."

They moved through the tunnel in the direction of the Gate but hit the energy barrier again and were brought to a halt.

"So much for that idea," said Jack. "We'll have to deactivate the shield or else find the ring transporters the Jaffa are using."

"This shield must require a lot of power," Sam said. "The generator most likely is inside the complex. The same with the ring transporters."

"So we'll have to go back in," Jack said. "Right now, let's get back to the entrance hole. If the Jaffa find it, and come in after us, they'll have us trapped in a dead end."

Makepeace was on his radio again. "Jack, the SGC is calling," he said. "General Hammond wants to speak to you."

"O'Neill here, sir," Jack said, taking the radio. He would have liked to ask about Teal'c but shelved that thought; this wasn't the time. "Colonel Makepeace has given you a sitrep, right?"

"You're cut off from the Gate by an energy barrier, and under attack from Jaffa," Hammond confirmed. "How did you escape from Hathor?"

"She let us go, General," Jack reported. "She claims she doesn't want to fight us. The trouble is her First Prime has other ideas. We don't know if he's going behind her back or if he's organized an open revolt. If it's the first we may be able to resolve things without a full-scale battle. If it's the second… things could get messy. Hathor's defenses are pretty formidable even not counting the energy barrier."

"The Tok'ra said the exterior was unguarded," Hammond said. Jack could tell, even over the radio, that the General was frowning.

"The Tok'ra agent didn't know about the defenses," Jack said. "I could see the surprise on her face when Hathor pulled that rabbit out of her hat."

"You've identified the Tok'ra agent?"

"Yes, sir, I'm pretty sure I have," Jack confirmed. "Which is handy, as we can make sure we don't shoot her by mistake. We're going to penetrate the complex to try to shut down the energy shield."

"I'll act on the assumption you're not going to be able to resolve things peacefully," Hammond said, "and organize reinforcements to arrive in… six hours from now. Advise me if the situation changes."

"Roger that, sir," Jack said. He glanced at his watch, which he had retrieved earlier, and made a note of the time. Over the radio he could just make out Hammond's voice speaking in an aside to someone in the SGC.

"Rotate the MALP's cameras to give a full picture of the area," Hammond ordered. A few seconds later the connection went dead.

"I'm guessing the Jaffa have just blasted the MALP," Jack said. "No more phoning home until we can get to the Gate."

"So how do you want to play this, Jack?" Makepeace asked. "Do we hit the complex in force?"

Jack shook his head. "That would blow any chance of stopping the shooting war," he said. "I'll take just Carter and Jackson. If we bump into Hathor we should be able to talk our way out. If we don't… we'll locate the generator and blow it to bits."

Makepeace nodded. "Okay. I'll have a try at taking out the gun towers. With them gone we'll have a tactical advantage."

"First I'll get rid of this white jacket," Jack said. Carter had already ditched hers. "It makes me stand out like an African-American guy at a NASCAR race." He took off the jacket, cast it aside, and donned the top part of his BDUs. "Okay, Carter, Daniel, time to go right back where we started from. Hopefully this time Hathor won't put us into cold storage."

_To be continued…_


	2. Perfect host for our dream

Jack advanced cautiously through the room containing the cryogenics chambers. Daniel followed close behind and Sam brought up the rear. The sound of footsteps, the heavy tread of armored Jaffa, alerted them to someone approaching and they took cover behind the installations.

Into the room, moving slowly, came Dr. Raully, Hathor, and two Jaffa. Raully was at the front, a zat in her hand, and behind her came Hathor clinging to the arm of a Jaffa almost as if she would fall if she let go. Raully saw Jack, who was looking at her over the sights of an MP-5, and immediately she put up her hands so that the zat was pointing harmlessly into the air. Simultaneously she stepped sideways to place herself between Jack and Hathor.

"Don't shoot!" Raully cried. "We mean you no harm, Colonel O'Neill."

One of the Jaffa started to bring his staff weapon to bear but Hathor spoke sharply, in Goa'uld, and the Jaffa raised the weapon to point upward.

"It was not Queen Hathor who prevented your departure," Raully said. "Trofsky has betrayed us. We feared you had been slain." For a moment Jack thought that Raully had adopted Hathor's habit of speaking of herself in the plural. Then Raully turned her head and spoke to Hathor. "I was right," she said. "The shield was activated to prevent their departure."

"We apologize, Colonel," Hathor said. "Trofsky has rebelled, disobeyed our commands, and suborned many of our Jaffa. It was no will of ours that you should be detained."

"He tried to kill Hathor," Raully said. "If I hadn't had a healing device she might well have died."

Raully had saved Hathor's life and now had positioned herself as a human shield to protect Hathor if Jack had fired? Maybe he was wrong about her being the Tok'ra agent. Although self-sacrificing behavior would be out of character for a Goa'uld, who were a bunch of slimy backstabbers, and Raully was acting like a genuinely loyal and devoted lieutenant. Either way, he wasn't going to shoot her, or Hathor; not right now, anyway.

"Okay, I won't shoot," Jack said. He stood up and moved out from behind the cryogenics chamber. "Call it a truce for the time being."

"Our offer of a long-term truce or alliance still stands," Hathor said. "Your assistance in recapturing our base will be received gratefully."

"Sir, you should see this," Carter put in. She was standing beside one of the installations looking down at the floor.

Jack went to join her. Hathor, still supported by a Jaffa and with Raully at her side, followed suit. Jack looked down and saw the orderly from whom he had taken the white suit. The man lay dead with the massive charred wound from a staff weapon in his chest.

"He was loyal to us," Hathor said, with what sounded like genuine sorrow in her voice. "Trofsky is slaying all such. First he declared that we had been slain by the Tau'ri, to inspire all the Jaffa to pursue and slay you, but we have learned that now he is revealing the truth to those he believes to be loyal to him personally. Those who object are slain."

"So how many does he have on his side?" Jack asked.

"All the Horus Guards, we believe," Hathor said. "A hundred and forty warriors. The majority of the Serpent Guards are loyal to us but they number only sixty-five."

"And Trofsky's picking them off one or two at a time, I'd guess," Jack said.

"It would seem so," Hathor said, "and also he has sent most of the Serpent Guards to fight some foe outside the complex. No doubt he will place them at the forefront so that they bear the brunt of the fighting and are further weakened. We suspect that the invaders are Tau'ri. Is that correct?"

"Yeah, some of our guys came looking for us," Jack admitted. "Now they're trapped inside the shield and pinned down under fire. And we can't either escape, or bring in reinforcements, unless we can take the shield down. It came as a nasty surprise to us."

"I apologize, Colonel," Raully said. "I was unaware of its existence when I reported your capture to the Tok'ra."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "I guessed you were Tok'ra," he said, "but I didn't expect you to come clean to Hathor."

"Our use of the healing device had already revealed that our guise as a Jaffa was false," Raully said, this time definitely speaking of herself in the plural, "and, once we had decided to support Hathor's claim to be Queen of the Tok'ra, there seemed no point in concealing our true identity any longer."

That sounded, to Jack, as if Raully was making a horrible mistake but, if they were going to ally with Hathor for the moment, this wasn't the time to raise the point. "So, how do we shut off the shield generator?" he asked.

"It is in a concealed room behind the replica Stargate," Hathor said. "Trofsky has placed a guard there which is too strong for our small force to overcome. With your aid, however, we should prevail."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's move," Jack said.

"Uh, Jack, Hathor looks to be injured," Daniel pointed out. "Maybe she should find somewhere to hole up and sit this one out."

Trust Daniel to be concerned on behalf of someone in pain, even someone he hated. Personally Jack didn't care if Hathor dropped dead right in front of them, except in so far as it would reduce their combat strength; although that was something that had to be taken into consideration.

"I have done my best to heal her," Raully said, "but there is a bullet lodged within her abdomen and, while it is there, the healing device has been less than completely effective. Once the situation here is resolved I was going to ask the medical staff at your base to operate and remove the bullet."

Jack's knee-jerk reaction was 'Over my dead body' but to say so out loud wouldn't help. And, when he thought about it, he could see Janet Fraiser agreeing – even though she hated Hathor possibly as much as he did. But at least he could pass the buck and leave the decision to General Hammond. At the moment Hathor's combat efficiency, or otherwise, was the important thing. "Daniel has a point. If you're likely to drop dead you'd be a liability. How bad is it?"

Hathor's eyes flashed. "I must heal Andromédē every few minutes," she said, in her Goa'uld voice. "I used my cloaking device to reconnoitre the Gate room but had to retreat quickly as I cannot maintain the necessary concentration whilst healing. My ability to use my kara kesh is impaired. And Andromédē is very hungry but Sarah forbids her from eating as she fears it may exacerbate the damage."

"I think I have some glucose tablets," Daniel offered. "They'll take the edge off the hunger but won't put any solids into your digestive tract. That should be safe enough." He rummaged through his pack, found a tube of the tablets, and extracted two and gave them to Hathor.

Jack noted Hathor's use of Raully's first name with some surprise; it was almost as if the Goa'uld Queen and the Tok'ra agent had become friends. Well, he supposed going through a tight situation together could bring about some surprising friendships; his own friendship with Daniel being a case in point. He put the thought aside and cast an assessing eye over Hathor's body. Her robe, not the one she had worn earlier, was blotched with bloodstains. Her bikini bottoms were positively saturated with blood. There were red smears across the skin of her stomach. He winced inwardly as his gaze passed over the glowing jewel-like device with which she had, a year ago, temporarily turned him into a Jaffa. Then he turned his attention to the gun tucked into her odd arrangement of leather straps… and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

"It is our intention to use the Tau'ri projectile weapon, cast aside by Trofsky after he shot us, in combat," Hathor said, reverting to her human voice. Her hand moved close to the weapon. "To slay him with it would be, if we have the expression correctly, poetic justice."

"Queen Hathor," Jack said, keeping his tone level so as not to startle her, "keep very still. Don't move your hand. You're in danger."

Hathor froze except for her ascending eyebrows. "From what?" Raully brought her weapon to the ready position, as did one of the Jaffa warriors, and both scanned the surroundings.

"Accidental firearm discharge," Jack answered. He would have shot Hathor himself without a qualm if she'd made any offensive moves, and he would have shed no tears if she'd been killed by Trofsky, but the thought of _anyone_ dying from an accident with a loaded gun pushed a button right at the heart of his soul. "The gun you're carrying is in a very unsafe state. If you even touch the trigger you could blow a hole in your stomach. Move your hand away."

Hathor obeyed. "We do not understand," she said. "You carry your weapons without fear."

"There's a thing called a safety catch," Jack explained. "When it's in the 'on' position you can carry the gun safely, no problem. When it's off… bad things can happen. Now I'm going to remove the gun, carefully, and apply the safety. Don't move, okay?"

"You may proceed," Hathor said.

Jack took hold of the gun by the butt and, being careful not to snag the hammer on the straps, pulled it free. The internal safeties on a Beretta were supposed to ensure that the gun couldn't go off in any other way than when the trigger was pulled but taking chances with a weapon wasn't something you did twice. Once he had it clear he applied the safety and the hammer moved to the de-cocked position.

"This is the safety catch," Jack said. He demonstrated how to flip it to 'off', how to apply it, and how to take it off again. "When it's like this… it's safe. When it's like this… it's not." He put the safety on again and held the gun out to Hathor. "Carry it in this state and flip the lever only when you're going to be shooting soon."

"We will do as you advise," Hathor said. "We thank you, Colonel O'Neill. You may have saved us from death or serious injury. Or, worse, we may have shot Sarah by accident."

"Worse?" Raully queried. Her eyes widened. "Really?"

"You are our friend, and to lose you would grieve us deeply," Hathor said. She changed to her Goa'uld voice. "I have had no true friends, save for Andromédē, since Egeria departed from Earth in the one hundred and twenty-ninth Year of the City."

"Six hundred and twenty-five BC," Daniel calculated. "Uh, you were Egeria's friend?"

"I was," Hathor confirmed. She paused to pop one of the glucose tablets into her mouth. "We had some disagreements, it is true, but kept them amicable."

Jack could see Daniel continuing this conversation all day if someone didn't stop him before he got started. "Save it for later," he said. "We've more urgent things to worry about. The shield generator, people." He glanced at his watch. "There'll be reinforcements coming through the Gate in… just over three hours from now. If the shield's not down before then they'll be stuck on the outside looking in."

"Then we shall act at once," Hathor said, in her human voice once more. "We cede command to you, Colonel, as you have greater experience in such matters."

"Right," said Jack. "How many guards are in the Gate room?"

"We saw fifteen," Hathor said.

"All Horus Guards, I'll bet," Jack guessed. Hathor confirmed his suspicion. "Where's the entrance to the generator room?" Jack went on.

"Immediately behind the false Chappa'ai," Hathor answered. "The door is opened by the lever that, in your base, is the manual activation for the barricade you call the iris."

"Neat," Jack conceded. "Is there an observation gallery like in the real Gate room?"

"There is," Hathor said, "but it is purely for show. The controls therein are mere shells and there is no blast screen."

"Is the glass bullet-proof?" Jack asked.

"No, it is not," Hathor said. "We saw no need."

"Good," Jack said, grinning. "Okay, this is what we'll do…"

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

The window shattered and a cascade of glass shards fell to the Gate room floor. Even before the last of them had hit the ground Jack had a grenade in the air and Sam was spraying the Jaffa with hot lead. Almost simultaneously both doors of the embarkation room opened and each one revealed one of Hathor's two Jaffa firing a blast from his staff weapon. The Jaffa immediately ducked back, out of the way of any return fire, and Daniel and Raully poked their hand weapons around the doorways and fired un-aimed shots just to keep the enemies' heads down. Then the grenade exploded.

Sam ducked down and retreated back into the observation room while she reloaded. Jack brought up his own MP-5 and fired short aimed bursts at the survivors of the grenade blast. And then none of the hostile Jaffa were moving and Jack called out "Cease fire!" Only two of the enemy had managed to fire their staff weapons and neither of the blasts had come remotely close to scoring a hit.

It took a minute or two for Jack and Sam to descend from the observation room, work their way through the connecting corridors, and enter the Gate room. By that time the others were standing beside the bodies of the Jaffa, Hathor again being supported by one of her guards, and questioning a wounded Horus Guard who seemed to be the only survivor.

"Why did you revolt against us?" Hathor demanded. "What has Trofsky told you?"

"You… betray the gods," the Jaffa croaked out. "If we bring your head, and those of the Tau'ri, to Heru'ur we will be readmitted to his service without punishment for our desertion."

"Foolish one, the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld are the same people," Hathor told him. "The Tok'ra are less cruel, and do not demand worship, that is all. And Heru'ur would accept the heads and then have you slain. He has no honor. We know this." She turned to Jack. "What should we do with him, Colonel O'Neill? We are aware that it is not your custom to slay wounded foes yet to take him prisoner would be impractical."

"Take his weapons, tie him up, zat him once, and stash him somewhere out of the way," Jack said. "We can make a final decision later, once you're back in charge of this place. But first we'd better deal with the generator. Trofsky's guys will have heard the commotion and they might be along any minute."

"Indeed so," Hathor said. She gave orders, in Goa'uld, to her Jaffa and they moved to carry out Jack's suggestion. Raully took over the duty of lending Hathor a supporting arm. Sam operated the fake iris lever and a section of wall slid open to reveal a massive turbine.

"I had planned on blowing it up," Jack said, "but I guess you can just switch it off. But we'd better take away a few vital parts so Trofsky can't just switch it back on."

"That is feasible," Hathor said. "We can show you some suitable components." With Sam following Hathor's directions the generator was silenced within moments and, with a pair of what Jack classified as 'spark-plug equivalents' in their packs, the party set off from the Gate room.

And, almost immediately, encountered a squad of Jaffa hastening to the location of the gun battle.

A short and vicious firefight ensued. When it finished the opposing Jaffa were all dead, one of Hathor's Jaffa was down with a nasty staff weapon wound in his right thigh, and Hathor herself was on her hands and knees, looking disturbingly pale, and seemingly too weak to rise to her feet.

"What happened? Were you hit?" Jack asked.

Raully was using her healing device. "She put up a defensive shield," she told Jack, "and then collapsed. It lasted just long enough to save me from a staff blast."

"Andromédē is unconscious," Hathor said. "I cannot control her body in this state."

"I shall restore her soon," Raully said. "Do not move until she is awake – and not quickly even then."

"Uh, Jack," Daniel said, "there's something badly wrong. I'm no medical expert but I've had enough training to know that a bullet lodged in the intestinal tract shouldn't be having this much effect after she'd been treated with the healing device. She's bleeding internally. I bet she passed out because her blood pressure dropped too low. And that has to mean that the bullet, or part of it, is in the wall of a major artery. When she exerts herself it moves and rips the wall further open. If it's the abdominal aorta, and it rips all the way through, she'll be dead in minutes."

Jack winced. He didn't feel anything like as much hatred for Hathor, by this time, as he had felt earlier. In fact he had to admit that on the basis of this mission, without remembering what she'd done when she tried to take over the SGC, he'd have developed a degree of respect for her. "If we leave her somewhere, and Trofsky's Jaffa find her, she's dead," he said. "I don't think we've any alternative but to take her along with us and just try to make things as easy for her as we can."

"If we can get her back to the SGC Janet will fix her up," Sam said.

"That's all we can try to do," Jack said.

"We are awake," Hathor said, "and feel stronger. Sarah, tend to Bon'tac. Our symbiote can continue the healing from this point."

"If you are sure…" said Raully.

"We are," Hathor said. "We would appreciate assistance in regaining our footing."

Jack offered her his arm. Her eyebrows rose as she took it and, still unsteadily, rose to her feet.

"We thank you, Colonel O'Neill," Hathor said, "and we thank you, Daniel Jackson and Captain Carter, for your concern. Again we express our regret for our previous actions. If we had recognized your true worth at that time we would have acted very differently."

"Right, we get it," Jack said. "As soon as your Jaffa can walk we'd better be on our way. I want to get out of here before any more of Trofsky's guards turn up. And then we've another battle to fight. Try not to drop dead on us, okay?"

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

They crouched in the undergrowth, sheltered behind trees, and looked out over the clearing that surrounded the Stargate. "Uh-oh," Jack said. "This doesn't look good."

Trofsky's forces were in full control of the area. The sentry guns were undamaged. A large body of Horus Guards surrounded a smaller group of prisoners. Eight SG team members, including Colonel Makepeace, and a larger number of Serpent Guards. Jack took the time to count the Serpent Guard prisoners and came up with twenty-eight. He couldn't get a hard count on the Horus Guards but estimated their number at close to one hundred.

"I don't think we can take on that many, sir," Sam said, "unless we synchronize our attack with the arrival of the reinforcements."

"Ya think?" Jack said. "Even then we're going to have problems. The Gate activation will tip off the Jaffa and they'll be ready. The incoming force will take heavy casualties and we can't lay down enough covering fire to make much difference."

Trofsky was clad in the full armor, minus the helmet, of a Jaffa First Prime. He appeared to be interrogating Makepeace, who was kneeling and appeared to be bound hand and foot, although Trofsky's angry yells weren't intelligible from where SG-1 was hiding. It didn't seem as if the interrogation was achieving anything. Trofsky kicked Makepeace in the face, causing Jack to clench his fists in impotent rage, and then turned away and began to issue orders. In response the Horus Guards split up. Half of them marched off in the direction of the pyramid complex and the remainder stayed to guard the prisoners.

"Now that's more promising," Jack said. "It's still a tough proposition but it's doable. Especially if we can get some of the prisoners free." He thought for a moment. "How many zats have we scavenged?"

"Eleven, sir, plus Raully's and the two Jaffa's," Sam answered.

"Raully, could you use Hathor's cloaking device?"

"I don't know. I have never used one," Raully said.

"It is simple enough," Hathor told her. "We could instruct you in a matter of minutes." She passed the device over to the Tok'ra agent. "We believe we see your plan, Colonel O'Neill, and we approve."

"What about your, whatchacallit, kara kesh?" Jack said. "If you're not up to using it Raully might as well have it. Or Carter. She tried one out before and managed to use it."

"I don't think so, sir," Sam said. "I managed to get Kendra's to work, yes, but I wouldn't feel confident enough to use Hathor's in actual combat. Not without practice."

"It is more complicated than the cloaking device," Hathor said. "We required half a day's practice to become proficient in its operation and, in the early stages, we made errors that could have been hazardous in a combat situation. Are you familiar with the kara kesh, Sarah?"

"I have seen them in use but never used one myself," Raully admitted. "It might be best if you keep it. But use it only in the direst need."

"The Jaffa have their staff weapons, and Carter and I have MP5s. So, that makes thirteen spare zats and two spare pistols," Jack said. He had counted Hathor's M9 as a spare because he didn't want her engaging in combat. "Raully, you'll need to deliver them – surreptitiously – to the prisoners. Zats to the Jaffa, pistols to the SG teams. Cut them free but tell them not to move until the reinforcements start coming through the Gate or until we start shooting."

"We would ask that we retain our pistol," Hathor said. "It is our only means of defense other than the kara kesh."

"Me too," Daniel said, "and I don't have the kara kesh option."

Jack had meant Daniel to keep his pistol, in any case, but Hathor had raised a valid point and Jack changed his mind. "Better idea, take a zat each," he said. "There are more of them to go around. But, Hathor, don't you go seeking out any fights."

"We will not," Hathor assured him. "We recognize that to do so would imperil our lives excessively. It shall be for defense only. You shall exact our vengeance upon Trofsky in our stead."

"Colonel, I'm not happy about leaving Hathor with no access to my healing," Raully said. "And, frankly, I'm not sure I could sneak past the guards even cloaked. My training, other than my technical skills, is in subterfuge but not in stealth."

"I should be able to use the cloaking device, sir," Sam volunteered. "I'll do that part."

"I guess that makes more sense," Jack agreed. He looked at his watch. "Right, we have a plan. And we have forty-five minutes to put it into action."

"Not New York minutes, I hope," Hathor said, using her human voice but speaking in the first person singular.

Jack couldn't help smiling. "No, just normal ones," he said. "General Hammond is from Texas. But it was pretty funny."

Hathor reverted to her Goa'uld voice, spoke in Ancient Greek, and then switched to English. "That witticism was Andromédē's," she said. "Her spirits remain high despite everything."

"Good to hear," said Jack. He glanced over at the Gate. "It would be nice to be able to dial out and let Hammond know the situation," he said. "There's all kinds of potential for friendly fire incidents. But we'll just have to make do. Okay, first things first. Give Carter the lesson on how to use the Invisibility Cloak. And then we move."

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

The familiar 'kawoosh' formed as the Gate activated. Trofsky broke off from his most recent attempt to interrogate Colonel Makepeace, turned, and stared. He began yelling orders and the Horus Guards, who likewise had turned to face the Gate, rushed to form up in ranks ready to receive the arriving force with a barrage of fire. The sentry guns likewise traversed to aim at the Gate platform.

Jack simultaneously cursed their disciplined efficiency and was gratified to see that they'd neglected to leave anyone watching the prisoners. He could see loose bonds being slipped and a member of SG-3 leaning over to cut Colonel Makepeace's ropes with the knife left for that purpose by Carter. It might get used for stabbing, too, if the fight ended up as hand-to-hand. But the staff cannons in the towers were likely to prove the decisive element – unless Carter could do something about that.

He rose from cover and began to move forward at a fast jog. Daniel, and Hathor's two Jaffa, did the same; Hathor followed at a leisurely walking pace; Raully had given her strict instructions not to move any faster and to go round any obstacles instead of trying to climb over them. Even with that proviso Raully lagged well behind the others, keeping only a few yards ahead of Hathor, and glancing behind her every few seconds to check on Hathor's well-being. Not that Jack had counted on Raully making any major contribution to their firepower anyway. He just hoped her distraction didn't get her killed. And Hathor's main role would be to make sure her Serpent Guards didn't turn on the SG teams after Trofsky's force had been neutralized. Somehow, despite their past history, Jack was pretty sure he could trust her to do that.

The Stargate's shimmering event horizon parted and something shot out. Not the Marines Jack was expecting but an aircraft, resembling a Goa'uld Death Glider but with its wings curled in a ring around the hull. It was just the right size to fit through the Gate, with a whisker of clearance, and must have been designed for that very purpose. But going through, at flying speed, would take nerves of steel and a very fine touch. Who could it be? Another Goa'uld staging an invasion at exactly the time the reinforcements from the SGC were due? That would be one hell of a coincidence but they did happen. Or maybe the Tok'ra had had the little fighter stashed away as a secret weapon and they'd joined up with the SGC for this mission. No point in speculation, though, it was time for action.

Trofsky's massed Jaffa stared up at the speeding fighter, raised their staffs, and a few of them loosed energy blasts that came nowhere near hitting the craft. On the towers the staff cannons rose and swiveled like World War 2 flak guns.

And Carter, standing invisible at the base of one tower, opened up at the other with her MP5. In that position she was completely out of the arc of fire of the tower beside her and the other couldn't shoot back at her without blowing the supports out from under its opposite number. She'd be much more vulnerable to the Jaffa on the ground, of course, as they wouldn't be subject to the same restrictions and eventually they'd be able to work out where she was.

Although they had troubles of their own. The prisoners, now unguarded and with quite a few of them now armed, rose up and attacked. Bolts from the zats seared through the air and, with the targets in such close ranks, they could hardly miss. Pistol shots cracked. Several of the Horus Guards went down.

Jack halted, raised his MP5, and emptied the magazine in one long burst. He wanted to do as much damage as possible while the enemy were still in tight formation and before the prisoners closed to hand-to-hand range and got in the way. His fusillade ripped through the ranks and sent eight Horus Guards toppling. Another two dropped their staff weapons; one fell to his knees and the other staggered back clutching a wounded arm. Jack ejected the empty magazine and moved on, slapping another magazine home as he advanced, keeping one eye on the unidentified fighter aircraft to see what it did.

The tower targeted by Sam had fallen silent, the crew dead or injured, and now the odd-looking aircraft banked, turned, and dived at the surviving sentry gun with its cannons blazing. The turret exploded in a ball of flame and the fighter made another bank and turn. It passed over the melee as if it was making a strafing run but didn't fire.

Jack deduced that the mysterious craft wasn't part of an invasion by some other Goa'uld. An invader would have mown down Serpent Guards, Horus Guards, and SGC personnel alike. He had no time to consider the matter further; his full attention had to be on the fight. Zat beams, staff blasts, and bullets were flying every which way. He clicked the shot selector to single-shot and began to pick off targets of opportunity wherever he could be sure he wouldn't hit someone on his own side. Of course the presence of Carter the Invisible Girl in the area complicated things; she was simultaneously the least likely person in the fight to be hit by an aimed shot from the enemy and the most likely to be the victim of friendly fire.

That thought must have occurred to Carter as she suddenly popped into visibility nearby. Three Horus Guards were charging in her direction but their startled reactions proved that this was pure coincidence. One halted, trying to bring his staff weapon to bear, while the other two continued their charge in an apparent attempt to get close and bludgeon her to the ground. A doomed attempt; Carter's MP5 was already aimed, she had reloaded after emptying her magazine at the sentry gun, and she dropped both of the oncoming Jaffa with head shots and then killed the third with equal precision.

Jack was hoping to get a shot at Trofsky but there were too many bodies in the way. The freed prisoners had closed the range as quickly as they could, unsurprisingly as more than half of them were unarmed, and the three separate groups rapidly became a brawling mass in which men and Jaffa tried to bludgeon, strangle, or stab each other to death. And it was a very even struggle; Trofsky's forces had taken enough losses from the initial volley from the freed prisoners, and Jack's own devastating attack, to pretty much wipe out their original advantage in numbers. It was impossible to predict who would win. If Jack, or Sam, could get into position to shoot Trofsky that might bring a quick end to the fight. Unfortunately he was managing to keep well out of their way. And Trofsky had his own plan for a quick victory. He circled around the mob and headed straight for Hathor.

Jack saw him and tried to maneuver into position to shoot the treacherous First Prime. He was delayed by having to deal with two Jaffa breaking away from the main fight to attack him and he lost track of Trofsky for a few moments. Then something else distracted him; a party arriving through the Stargate. Jaffa, as he'd half expected after the appearance of the little fighter, but not the invading army of a System Lord; a mere five warriors. And, even though he could spare time only for a brief glance, he was pretty sure he recognized one of them. Master Bra'tac.

Of course! Jack remembered Makepeace telling him that Teal'c had 'quit and gone home to do his own thing'. That 'thing' must have been to recruit some Jaffa for a rescue mission. The little Tie-Fighter knock-off must be a Jaffa craft picked up on Chulak; in fact Teal'c was probably the one flying it, as he certainly possessed the nerve and the precise touch required. And, although the force might be small, Master Bra'tac's combat experience and skill made him the equal of a dozen regular Jaffa. Not that he was doing any fighting yet. He, and the four warriors accompanying him, could only stare down from the Gate platform at the ongoing struggle and try to make sense of the confusion.

In the ranks of the combatants Colonel Makepeace tackled a Jaffa and brought his opponent to the ground. Beyond the now prone pair Jack saw Trofsky. For a brief moment he had a clear shot and he took it. The range was too long to risk a head shot and Jack took the safer option of aiming for the center of the body. He scored a hit and Trofsky fell. Then Makepeace rose to kneel above his opponent and started to slam the Horus Guard's helmeted head against the ground. He blocked Jack's line of sight to the fallen First Prime and Jack wasn't able to tell how seriously Trofsky was hurt. He hoped he'd killed him but doubted it; at that range the 9mm bullet might have failed to penetrate the Jaffa's ornate armor. The best that he could expect was that Trofsky was wounded seriously enough to put him out of the fight for the duration. More combatants got in the way of Jack's view and he had to abandon any idea of finishing off Trofsky. Instead he decided that his best course of action lay in linking up with Master Bra'tac's group and letting them know what was happening. That way the new arrivals would be able to intervene, perhaps decisively, without fear of shooting the wrong targets and making things worse. Jack turned and headed for the Gate.

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

Daniel kept clear of the melee, firing his zat when he had a clear shot, and trying to watch Jack's and Sam's backs as best he could. He checked behind him, when he could, watching out for Trofsky's other fifty Jaffa returning to the field; unlikely, as Daniel was pretty sure they'd been sent back to the complex to investigate the failure of the shield generator and to destroy whoever was responsible, but if they did return they would crush Hathor's loyalists and the SGC people in short order.

Daniel also cast occasional glances at Hathor and Raully. Raully, like him, was playing only a minor role in the battle. For the most part she was acting merely as a bodyguard for Hathor. The Goa'uld Queen hadn't fired her zat at all, as far as Daniel could see; she was contenting herself with shouting out to the Jaffa in Goa'uld. Daniel's spoken Goa'uld wasn't perfect but he could follow what she said well enough to tell that she was urging the Horus Guards to surrender, commanding the Serpent Guards to spare any foes who did surrender, and informing the Serpent Guards that the Tau'ri were allies and were not to be harmed. When Trofsky was shot, and fell flat, this gave Hathor additional material. So far none of the Horus Guards had obeyed her instruction to surrender and, perhaps feeling that they simply weren't hearing her above the clamor of the combat, Hathor closed the range and drew nearer to the fray. Raully kept ahead of Hathor, continuing to place herself between the prospective future Queen of the Tok'ra and the combatants, and came within a couple of paces of where Trofsky lay.

Suddenly Trofsky moved. His hand came up holding a zat and he fired at Raully. She froze rigid and then toppled. Trofsky leapt to his feet and grabbed her as she fell. He held her in front of him as a shield and fired another shot, this time at Hathor, but she put up a shield and the zat bolt dissipated harmlessly. She raised her own zat but hesitated, obviously unwilling to risk hitting Raully, and Trofsky turned his zat to point at Raully's head.

"A second shot will kill her, Shol'va queen," Trofsky snarled. "If you shoot me you slay her also."

"And if you slay her we will shatter your bones," Hathor responded, lowering the zat but raising her left hand, holding her kara kesh, instead. "Release Raully, and surrender, and we shall spare your life and send you back to Heru'ur."

"To be executed for my desertion," Trofsky said. "No, I will not surrender. Now back off and let me pass or your new favorite dies."

Daniel gritted his teeth in frustration. He was out of Trofsky's line of sight, and could have zatted the First Prime in the back, but the metal armor would conduct the charge into Raully and, as Trofsky had said, the second shot would kill the Tok'ra woman. Hathor couldn't use her zat, for the same reason, and Raully's role as a human shield also prevented Hathor from using her kara kesh. One of the two Jaffa who had accompanied Hathor was still clear of the close-quarter melee but his staff weapon was far too inaccurate to be of any help in a hostage situation. For the moment Trofsky seemed to have all the cards. But if they did let him get away it was obvious what he would do; head for the pyramid, collect the rest of his Jaffa, and bring them back to wipe out the surviving Serpent Guards, Hathor, and the Earth forces.

Hathor's jaw tightened. She took one step aside and then stopped. She spoke in Ancient Greek. "Let me deal with him, my Queen," she said; or rather, Daniel realized, Andromeda said.

"It is a risk," Hathor replied, in the same language, "but I see no alternative. Do it, then, Princess." She tossed the zat to the ground and adopted a martial arts stance with her hands open and held higher than in the styles that Sam favored.

Trofsky didn't recognize her intent. "Your hand device would kill her as well as me, fool," he said. "Move aside." He gestured with his zat and, just for an instant, it pointed away from Raully.

Hathor – no, Andromeda – struck like lightning. She reached Trofsky in one long stride, her hands shot out, and she seized Trofsky's hand and arm and wrenched. He cried out and dropped the weapon. Andromeda stepped in closer, wrenching the arm around even further and pulling, and drove her forehead into Trofsky's face. He released Raully, who slumped to the ground, and brought that arm around to strike at Andromeda. She released Trofsky's wrist and brought up her elbow to block Trofsky's blow. The resulting impact didn't seem to hurt Andromeda at all but Trofsky cried out again and his fingers, as he drew back his hand, were bent in ways that suggested to Daniel that they were broken.

Andromeda struck at Trofsy's throat. She caught his windpipe between her fingers and thumb and squeezed. Trofsky gagged and brought up his damaged hand to try to free himself. Andromeda let go of his throat and arm and pushed Trofsky away. He stumbled back a pace. Daniel was tempted to zat him but guessed Andromeda would attack again and so held his fire. Andromeda tilted her body back and brought up her right leg in a kick that Daniel had seen illustrated on pottery vases two and a half thousand years old; it was the 'shield-breaker' kick of Pankration, the lethal martial art of the Ancient Greeks, a devastating move made even more deadly when delivered with the enhanced strength of a Goa'uld.

Trofsky was knocked back several feet. If it hadn't been for his armor he might have been killed outright. As it was he stayed upright but doubled over, clutching at his middle, and was completely helpless as Andromeda followed up and seized him once more. She took him by the throat and the head, twisted viciously, and then held up his limp body. Her eyes flashed and she shouted out in Goa'uld.

"Trofsky is dead," Hathor cried. "We have slain him for his treachery. Surrender and your lives shall be spared. Fight on and you shall perish." She cast Trofsky's corpse aside. The Horus Guards wavered and several threw down their weapons. Once a few had done so the remainder, now outnumbered and realizing that they faced a losing battle, followed suit. The fight was over.

Hathor turned to where Raully had fallen, bent over her new friend, and smiled as she saw that Raully was uninjured and was already stirring as she returned to consciousness. The smile disappeared and Hathor's face paled. She swayed on her feet.

"Doctor Jackson," she gasped. Her hands went to her stomach. "We feel… Help us…" Her voice cut off and she collapsed face down on top of Raully.

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

"Nice shooting, sir," Jack said to General Hammond. He'd been surprised to find that the General had been the gunner on the plane, the 'Needle-Threader', although he'd already guessed that Teal'c had been the pilot.

"Indeed," said Teal'c.

"It's been a while since I was a combat pilot," Hammond said, "but you don't forget. So, Jack, what's the situation?"

"It's a long story, sir," Jack began. He stopped as he saw Daniel approaching followed by Raully and two Jaffa. The Jaffa were carrying an improvised stretcher made from two staff weapons with cloaks stretched between them. Hathor lay on the stretcher, motionless, with Raully walking alongside projecting an orange beam from her healing device onto the still figure.

"Jack, General Hammond," Daniel called. "We have a medical emergency. We need to get Hathor to the base hospital right now."

"Doctor Jackson, are you seriously suggesting we take that Goa'uld to the base and give her medical treatment?" Hammond's eyebrows shot up. "Why in the name of Sam Hill should we do that after what she did to us last time?"

"Please help us," Raully begged. "She is dying. The healing device is barely keeping pace with the internal bleeding."

"Raully of the Tok'ra," Jack explained. "She thinks Hathor could be their new Queen." He grimaced. "Sir, I hate to say this, but I think we ought to help her. This whole mess wasn't Hathor's fault. If her orders had been obeyed nobody would have gotten hurt at all." He saw Teal'c's eyebrow climbing. "You weren't supposed to get shot, Teal'c. That was Trofsky's idea. And it was him who shot Hathor. The bullet's still in there and it's killing her."

"Please," Raully begged again. "Without a Queen the Tok'ra are a doomed race. And I cannot keep this up much longer. When I run out of energy… she will die."

"I don't know…" Hammond said.

"I have to admit Hathor pulled her weight when we had to team up," Jack said. "I think we should cut her some slack."

"I was impressed by her fighting technique," Master Bra'tac put in. "Never have I seen one of the false gods, not even Heru'ur, display such prowess at unarmed combat."

"Oh, that wasn't Hathor," Daniel said. "It was Andromeda. The host," he clarified. "She used the Ancient Greek fighting art of Pankration. Usually it was forbidden for women to learn it but some girls in royal families were taught it, for self-defense, and Andromeda was a princess."

Jack cut to the chase before Daniel could launch into a full-on lecture covering the history and techniques of the martial art. "She handed over control to Andromeda? You're certain?"

"Positive," Daniel confirmed, "and I'm sure it wasn't for the first time."

"That is why we believe she could make a good Queen for the Tok'ra," Raully said. "But she must live. Please, we beg you, act quickly."

Hammond pursed his lips and thought for a moment. "Very well," he said. "Colonel, dial the SGC and warn them to stand by for a medical emergency. I hope I don't regret this."


	3. Resurrection Time

"Receiving IDC transmission, sir," the technician reported. "It's… the Tok'ra."

"Open the iris," General Hammond ordered.

Jack, Daniel, and Sam hurried into the Gate room; Teal'c had remained behind on Hathor's planet for the time being. Behind them Dr. Raully, who had been dozing on a chair outside the infirmary and whose white coat was a crumpled mess, followed at a slightly slower pace.

Three people came through the event horizon; a tall dark-haired woman, approaching middle age but still beautiful, a tall and handsome man, and Jacob Carter.

"Stand down," Hammond ordered the security teams. "Glad to see you, Jacob, Selmak," he greeted General Carter. "Would you introduce your companions?"

"Of course, George," Jacob said. "Garshaw of Belote," he began, indicating the woman. "She's the Grand Council, that's the number two position in the Tok'ra High Council. Delek, also a member of the High Council. Major General George Hammond, in charge of Stargate Command."

"Welcome to Earth, Madame Garshaw, Mister Delek," Hammond greeted them.

"I am pleased to meet you, General Hammond," Garshaw replied. "I see our operative Mingala. I would like to hear her report."

"Mingala?" Jack said to Raully.

"Sarah Raully was just a cover name for the operation," Raully explained. "The symbiote is Mingala, and the host is called Thina. Although we've become rather attached to the Sarah Raully name and would like to keep it."

"Of course," General Hammond said to Garshaw. "Perhaps you might like to make use of our briefing room?"

"That would be satisfactory, thank you," Garshaw said.

"I'll have you escorted there," Hammond said.

"General Hammond, I would like SG-1 to be present," Raully said. "They could escort us."

Garshaw raised her eyebrows. "You wish the Tau'ri to be part of this discussion? Surely it is purely the business of the Tok'ra."

"I do, Grand Council," Raully said. "Their input will be important."

Jack thought she looked nervous and put a hand on her shoulder in a gesture of support. She turned her head and gave him a warm smile.

"Very well," Garshaw said. "And we will, of course, have to interview… Hathor." She said the name as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

"She's asleep," Daniel said. "Doctor Frasier won't let anyone see her for a while yet. She was literally seconds from death."

"We will wait," said Garshaw. "Very well, escort us to this… briefing room."

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

"Well, Mingala, tell us why you believe that Hathor, a Goa'uld who was of System Lord status in the past and who could well be again, is qualified to become Queen of the Tok'ra?" Garshaw fixed Raully with a hard stare.

Raully swallowed hard. "We would prefer it if you called us Raully from now on," she said, "unless you are speaking specifically only to the symbiote or the host."

"Oh? That is not our custom," Garshaw said, "but if it is what you desire I see no reason why not. Very well, Raully, explain yourself."

Raully bit on her bottom lip and glanced to her sides, meeting the eyes of Jack, Daniel, and Sam, and seeming to draw strength from their encouraging smiles. "Hathor is not like the other Goa'uld," she said. "We believe this is not a recent change but dates back to her acquisition of Andromeda as a host. She does not suppress Andromeda's personality, but talks to her, and allows her control of the body; quite frequently, we believe, although as Hathor rarely uses her Goa'uld voice it is sometimes hard to tell."

"You have evidence of this?" Garshaw queried.

"When they talk to each other they vocalize their speech, in a language we do not speak," Raully explained. "Doctor Jackson speaks it, however, and will confirm what we have told you."

"They speak in the Ionic dialect of Ancient Greek," Daniel confirmed. "It's what they spoke in Milētos, where Andromeda came from. I speak the very similar Attic dialect and don't have a problem understanding them."

Delek frowned. "They speak aloud to each other? That should not be necessary. Unless they are not properly blended."

"They seem to preserve a greater degree of separation between symbiote and host than do we," Raully agreed. "Andromeda even has skills that Hathor seems not to possess and, conversely, her understanding of some languages is not as fluent as that of Hathor."

"Remarkable," Garshaw said, "but there is more to being a Tok'ra than merely refraining from subduing the host."

"We know," Raully said. She swallowed again. "We fought together against her rebellious First Prime and we came to know her – them – well. We saved their lives and they saved ours twice. In fact they put themselves into deadly peril for our sake. They are brave, and understand the value of loyalty, and we are proud to call them friend. Friends." She smiled. "Of course they are also arrogant, vain, avaricious, promiscuous, and manipulative. Both of them; Andromeda was a princess and shares Hathor's sense of entitlement. Yet they have shown they can rise above their flaws."

"That will have to be proved to our satisfaction," said Garshaw. "What is your opinion, Delek? Selmak?"

"I remain unconvinced," Delek said.

"I remember Egeria telling me that she had attempted to persuade Hathor to allow her host some self-determination," Selmak said, "and that Hathor was not totally unreceptive to the idea. And that was how you started out, wasn't it, Garshaw?"

"I was not born a Tok'ra," Garshaw revealed, addressing SG-1. "I came to the same conclusions as Egeria did, although much later, and rebelled against the Goa'uld and joined the Tok'ra. I concede that Hathor may have done the same, especially if Egeria had prepared the ground, but I still require proof before I will back her claim. I was a very minor Goa'uld, in the service of Heru'ur and with no holdings of my own to lose, and for a System Lord to follow the same path does seem somewhat unlikely to me."

"What do you think, Jack?" Jacob put in.

"I have to admit she's grown on me," Jack said. "Like… mold. She messed us up pretty bad when we first met her, and I wanted her dead more than just about anything, but this time… well, she was okay. Pressing on with that bullet in her guts, without complaining, showed that she's got… guts. And seeing her kick Trofsky's ass with those sweet moves made my day."

"She fought bare-handed?" Delek raised his eyebrows.

"Yep. Actually Andromeda did the fighting, according to Daniel," Jack said. "She knows an Ancient Greek combat style that makes Krav Maga look like Marquis of Queensberry rules."

Garshaw and Delek both frowned in obvious puzzlement.

Jacob interpreted. "Krav Maga is an unarmed combat style taught to the Israeli army," he said. "Israel is a small nation, surrounded by enemies, and their soldiers have to be tough. Krav Maga is supposed to be the most deadly martial art on Earth. Whereas the Marquis of Queensberry created rules for sporting combats, using only the closed hands, that were designed to make sure no-one got hurt too badly. If something's more dangerous than Krav Maga then it must be really, really, brutal."

"Andromeda used Pankration," Daniel said. "Brutal is certainly a good description. The Spartans once boycotted the Olympic Games because of a rule change that prohibited eye-gouging."

Delek winced.

Garshaw looked thoughtful. "It could be a useful skill for our deep-cover agents, in the event of their discovery," she said. "If… and I repeat if… we accept Hathor then perhaps she could teach it to them."

"You mean Andromeda could teach it to them," said Daniel. "Hathor had to hand over control to Andromeda for the fight."

"Oh? Strange," said Garshaw. "Surely Hathor has access to all Andromeda's memories?"

"It's all in the reflexes," Jack said, "as a certain other Jack always says. I'd guess there's a little time lag when the instructions are going from the… symbiote to the host. It's not going to matter in a conversation but in a fight a fraction of a second could make all the difference. And, if Hathor's going to let Andromeda do all the fighting, why bother learning the moves?"

"A valid point," Garshaw conceded. "Perhaps that is why Lantash, who is involved in confrontations much more often than are we of the Council, leaves control to Martouf for the majority of the time." She fixed Jack with one of her hard stares. "Well, Colonel O'Neill, do you agree with Mingala – Raully – that Hathor would be a valid choice as Queen of the Tok'ra?"

Jack squinted at her. "You don't have heat vision, do you?"

"I do not understand your meaning," Garshaw said.

"Forget it," said Jack. "You remind me of somebody, that's all."

"You're right!" Sam exclaimed. "Ursa!"

"I don't think we've ever met any Goa'uld named Ursa," Daniel said.

"Superman 2," Jack explained. "The hot red-headed bad girl from Krypton. Played by Sarah Douglas." Daniel still looked puzzled; Garshaw's glare was beginning to get intense enough that her developing heat vision seemed a distinct possibility. "Sorry, I went a little off topic there," Jack said. "So, Hathor. Maybe she would make an okay Queen after all, but not if you just want someone to pop out little baby Tok'ra. I can't see her agreeing to do that and nothing else but if you give her a seat on your Council, maybe the same level as you, I think she'd go for it. And she'd bring in some new ideas. Or at least ones she's stolen from us and from the Ancient Greeks."

"And your opinion, Doctor Jackson?" Garshaw asked.

Daniel tapped his lower lip with his fingers before replying. "I think… she might be up to the job," he said. "Certainly she'd make a superb Queen of an Ancient Greek city-state. And… I don't hate her any longer. I can't forget what she did to me but I can put it aside. I'd say you should at least give her a chance."

"It is known that Hathor has the power to influence the minds of men," Garshaw said. Daniel and Jack both winced. "Captain Carter," Garshaw continued, "your opinion would be unclouded by such possible influence."

"She went to a whole lot of trouble to try to get information out of us without doing us any actual harm," Sam said, "and she had good reason to want revenge on us. Especially me. But she didn't do anything along those lines at all. I think she was sincere in what she said and, if she's willing to let bygones be bygones, so am I. If you want a Queen who's got courage, and determination, enough to burn then she's your… Goa'uld. You could do worse."

"I shall take your words under advisement," Garshaw said. "The actual decision must rest with the full High Council. What I recommend to them will be dependent upon what she says when we speak to her in person."

"There is something else that we must say," Raully said. "We feel the Tok'ra have made a serious error in treating the Tau'ri weapons with disdain. They may appear primitive to us but they are effective. Far more effective in combat, in fact, than anything we possess."

"I'll back her on that, Garshaw," Jacob chimed in. "You might look down on projectile weapons with chemical propellants but we've refined them to be pretty damn lethal. They outrange your weapons, and those of the Jaffa, by so much it's almost a joke. And they're far more accurate."

"We saw that demonstrated in the fight on Eskal," Raully confirmed. "Colonel O'Neill slew eight Jaffa, and wounded two more, in less time that it took us to fire a single shot with our zat'nik'tel."

"Perhaps there is merit in your suggestion," Garshaw conceded, "but this is not the time for such a discussion. We should concentrate on the issue at hand; Hathor."

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

"This is not how we would have wished to meet the Tok'ra," Hathor said. She looked down at the drab, shapeless, coveralls she had been given and frowned. "We had intended to meet them as a Queen on a throne, garbed in splendor, and surrounded by loyal Jaffa. Instead we must face them clad in this unflattering apparel, devoid of attendants, in a room provided by the good graces of those to whom we are indebted for our lives. We negotiate from a position of weakness." She sighed. "Yet perhaps deservedly so, for it is through our poor judgment that we are reduced to this state. Alas that we trusted Trofsky. We believed him to be steadfast, lacking only in ambition, and thus a suitable First Prime for us now that we do not seek to conquer other realms."

"We thought the same," Raully said. "You should not blame yourselves."

"So, are you ready to meet the Tok'ra?" Jack asked. He had better things to do than standing around listening to Hathor and Raully doing a post-game play-by-play. And now that both of them were using the plural to refer to themselves it was beginning to make his head spin.

"In a little while, Colonel," Hathor said. "There are some things we must know first. How do our Jaffa fare?"

"There are thirty-four surviving Serpent Guards," Jack informed her. "Most of the ones in the fight at the Gate came out of it alive and we found a few more at your pyramid. We've got seventy Horus Guard prisoners. Beats me what to do with them; right now they're just tying up our resources keeping them under guard."

"We do not believe that they know the dialing code for Eskal, as it is our understanding that Trofsky – may he rot in Tartarus – kept that to himself," Hathor said, "and thus it should be safe to release them. We suggest that you question them to verify that they know not the address and, if it is so, then you tell them that we are dead and send them back to Heru'ur. If they claim Trofsky told them he was following orders from Heru'ur then their lives may well be spared."

"That's… not a bad idea," Jack conceded.

"As for our Serpent Guards," Hathor continued, "we would be grateful if you would convey to them that their courage and loyalty has made us proud. If we are accepted as Queen of the Tok'ra we will ask them to accompany us as our Royal Guard."

"The Tok'ra would not be happy about the presence of Jaffa in their – our – bases," Raully pointed out. "There is a long history of animosity, and conflict, between our races."

"We had not been aware of the depth of this animosity until Trofsky's actions brought it home to us," Hathor said, "and we had not realized it was mutual – although, of course, it is logical that it should be so. Our knowledge of the Tok'ra is, we confess, less than complete."

"If you'd come and meet them you'd learn more," Jack said.

"A little longer, if you please, Colonel O'Neill," Hathor said. "It would not be advisable for us to go ill-prepared into a meeting which may decide our whole future. We must consider this matter of the Jaffa. We do not cast aside those who have served us well and the loyal Serpent Guards have earned our loyalty in return."

That earned Hathor a whole lot of points with Jack. He was used to Goa'uld doing the evil mastermind 'You have failed me, minion! Die!' thing, even when the Jaffa had tried their best, and he hadn't expected to find that Hathor understood the 'We don't leave anyone behind' ethos that was part of the reason why General Hammond inspired such loyalty and respect in his men.

"If it is an insuperable obstacle, or if the Tok'ra do not accept us for some other reason, we shall return to Eskal," Hathor said. "We take it you will permit us to depart?"

"Well, that's General Hammond's decision," Jack said, "but I can't see him forbidding it. But your planet isn't defensible with just thirty-four Jaffa and no sentry guns. Your shield would just mean you'd get trapped in a siege."

"Indeed so, perhaps for ten years," said Hathor, "although we would not open up for any wooden horses." Jack didn't need Danny to explain that one. "It is true Eskal is weakened. Even with a full complement of Jaffa it could not withstand bombardment from space. Our best defense was that the System Lords did not know of us and we can only hope that situation continues until we can rebuild." She sighed. "We hope that it will not be necessary, but it is essential that we preserve some other options, so that we are not forced to throw ourselves on the mercy of the Tok'ra for lack of any alternative."

"You need a fallback position," Jack agreed.

"An apt description," Hathor said.

"If the Tok'ra do not accept you, and you return to Eskal," Raully said, "we shall ask that we be allowed to accompany you as a liaison."

A request that Jack was sure would be granted, although he thought the Tok'ra council would regard it more as positioning Raully as a spy on Hathor; Jack, however, wasn't so sure where Raully's loyalties now lay.

Hathor gave a beaming smile. "True friend Sarah, you shall always have a place at our side," she said. She stepped forward and hugged Raully, who reciprocated; the embrace was warm enough to have raised questions in the land of 'Don't ask, don't tell' and Jack couldn't help raising a finger to tug at the inside of his collar. Hathor took hold of Raully's hand, as she released the embrace, and held it for several seconds, with the two women gazing into each other's eyes and smiling, before letting go.

"There is but one more thing before we will be ready to meet the delegates from the Tok'ra," Hathor said to Jack. "We desire to speak once more with Doctor Fraiser."

"She should be free now," Jack said. "I'll go check." He went into the infirmary and found Janet writing up some notes with a cup of coffee in front of her. "Hey, Doc," he greeted her. "Hathor would like a word with you. I think she wants to thank you."

Janet tucked a stray strand of hair behind an ear. "I never thought I'd get a 'Thank you' from Hathor. A blast from her ribbon device, perhaps, but nothing else. But I gather she's not currently a threat."

"We wouldn't have asked you to patch her up if she was," Jack said.

"It was a little more than 'patching up," Janet said. "In fact it was the toughest operation I've ever performed." She picked up a little semi-circular piece of jagged metal from her desk. "This fragment from a bullet jacket was lodged in her abdominal aorta," she said, "and the damage it had done… well, I don't think any human could have survived. Even with the symbiote she'd lost so much blood that her heart stopped briefly mid-operation. It was an incredibly close call. In fact I'm amazed that she's up, and walking around, in only a few hours."

"She was walking around and kicking ass with the bullet still in there," Jack said. "She showed a lot of guts."

"I can confirm that," Janet said. "I had a close-up view of them." Jack winced. "Well, I suppose I can spare her a little time," Janet went on. "Her companion's use of that healing device on our wounded saved me a lot of work." She drained her coffee cup and set it down, pushed back her chair, and stood up. "I wonder if she'd like this as a souvenir?" she said, holding up the bullet fragment. "No, probably not." She put it down and followed Jack out of the infirmary.

"Doctor Fraiser," Hathor said, "we wish to thank you most sincerely. We owe our lives to your skills. And your compassion toward one who was your enemy has touched us deeply."

"I was only doing my job," Janet said. "I try to treat all my patients equally."

"Then your other patients are lucky," Hathor said. Her eyes flashed, making Janet flinch, and Hathor spoke in her Goa'uld voice. "Your skill and dedication are outstanding. I remained conscious throughout, even when Andromédē's heart stopped, and I saw the intensity with which you strove. It was above and beyond mere duty." Her eyes flashed again and she reverted to her human voice. "We owe you more than we can expect to repay. If ever you need anything call us and, if it is at all within our power, we shall respond."

"Well, it's nice to be appreciated," Janet said. "I suppose having access to your healing devices on occasion could save lives."

"It would be our pleasure," Hathor said. "Farewell, Doctor Fraiser. _Hypiaínete_!" She bowed her head toward the doctor and then turned to Jack. "We are ready to meet with the delegates from the Tok'ra now, Colonel O'Neill."

Jack bit back the 'About time' that almost came to his lips; he couldn't really object to Hathor making sure that she was prepared for the interview and still less could he object to her taking the time to thank Janet. "Okay, Queen Hathor, Raully, come this way," he said instead. And, when they reached the conference room, he found himself saying something he never thought he'd say to Hathor. "Good luck."

Hathor smiled at him. "We thank you, Colonel O'Neill," she said. She unfastened the top button of her coveralls, drew herself up straight, and stood waiting. Jack took the hint and opened the door for her. Hathor took a deep breath and then entered the room with a confident stride, Raully following at her heels, and Jack had to admit that, coveralls or no, Hathor looked every inch a queen.

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

_Five years later…_

The SGC was unnaturally quiet. Everyone spoke in hushed voices. The sound of someone sobbing echoed through the corridors.

Daniel sat in his office with his head in his hands. He was exhausted but couldn't face going home, or sleeping in one of the rooms in the SGC; he didn't want to dream. He knew he would see Janet's dead eyes staring up at him,

The quiet was broken by the blaring Gate alarm and the call over the PA of "Unscheduled Gate activation!" Daniel stood up and began to move. If it was an emergency he might be needed; if not, well, at least it would give him something else to think about for a little while.

"Receiving IDC," he heard, as he neared the Gate room. "Hathor. It's the Tok'ra."

"Open the iris," came General Hammond's voice.

Daniel reached the Gate room in time to see the event horizon parting as Hathor's party came through. He expected this to be a formal visit in which Hathor, who had been informed of Janet's death soon after the event, came to express her condolences. From his first sight of her he knew this was not the case.

Hathor wasn't clad in formal robes but in stained BDUs and the same applied to Raully and Selmak at her side. She was followed by Bron'ak and M'Zel of her Jaffa Legion. They had T-90s, the Tok'ra knock-off version of the P-90 with an extended barrel for extra range and penetrative power, slung at their shoulders. Ishta and Ka'lel of the Tok'ra's new Hak'tyl allies came next. They too were armed with T-90s. All of them looked as if they had come straight from a battlefield. And behind them came more of the Jaffa Legion carrying… could it be?

"How long?" Hathor called, without even acknowledging General Hammond's greeting. "How long since…?"

Hammond frowned. "I don't…" he began.

Daniel interrupted him. "Ten hours forty minutes," he answered. He was close enough to Hathor now that he could smell her favorite French perfume overlaid by sweat and the smell of gun-smoke.

"Then we are in time," Hathor said, a smile coming to her face. "General Hammond, the first time we came to this base we owned a sarcophagus. It was destroyed but now…" she waved the Jaffa behind her forward, "we have obtained another."

"And you've brought it to us? For Doctor Fraiser?" Hope and relief showed in Hammond's expression.

"Indeed," Hathor said. "She saved our lives. To save hers in return is only right."

"You have my most fervent thanks," Hammond said. He turned and gave orders to an airman, who scurried off, and then turned back to Hathor. "How did you obtain the sarcophagus?"

"It had come to our knowledge that Moloc possessed such a device," Hathor explained. "We had planned an assault upon his planet, to slay that vile creature and liberate the Hak'tyl from his tyranny, but our attack was scheduled for when we could position our fleet in support. But when you sent the news of Doctor Fraiser's death we decided to launch an immediate attack."

"Against the advice of some members of the High Council," Selmak added, "but the Queen said that she would go with only her Legion if we did not back her."

"There is precedent," Hathor said – no, Daniel realized, the hint of accent revealed that it was Andromeda speaking. "Leonidas of Sparta took only the three hundred of his personal guard when he faced the Persians at the Hot Gates."

"And he died," Jacob said, taking over from Selmak. "We couldn't risk that and so we approved a full-scale operation. We hit Moloc with everything we could raise at short notice and it worked. We took him completely by surprise and his army folded up like a house of cards."

Daniel wasn't surprised. Hathor's forces, trained and equipped after the manner of Earth armies but with the benefits of advanced Tok'ra technology, were far superior to the conventional Jaffa of the System Lords. The bloody reverse they'd inflicted upon the forces of Anubis at the Battle of Revanna had confirmed their ability in battle. The Legion, volunteer Free Jaffa in the personal service of Hathor, were perhaps the finest infantry in the galaxy and could well have beaten Moloc even without the rest of the Tok'ra forces. And their Advanced Needle-Threader ships couldn't match Death Gliders in a dogfight but liberal use of air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, to sweep the skies clear, left the ANTs free to bomb and strafe unopposed.

"We were not in a position to launch a similar operation when you were in need of a sarcophagus, Doctor Jackson," Hathor said to Daniel, "or we would have done so. At that time we knew of no enemy possessing one who was sufficiently weak to be taken by storm."

"That's okay," Daniel told her. "It worked out for the best anyway. And I've had… bad experiences with sarcophagi."

Sam came into the Gate room. Her hair was tousled and her eyes were red. Daniel suspected that the sobbing he had heard might well have been Sam. "Hathor, Andromeda, welcome," Sam said. "Is that a… sarcophagus?"

"Greetings, Samantha," Hathor said. "Indeed it is. Janet Fraiser shall be saved and our debt repaid."

"Janet wouldn't think of it as a debt," Sam said, "but we… I just don't have the words. 'Thank you' isn't enough."

"We require no thanks," said Hathor, "although we would not say 'no' to a box of Swiss chocolates and perhaps another bottle of Joy by Jean Patou."

Sam laughed. "Of course," she said. She moved on to greet her father.

"Surely that can't be all you want," said Hammond.

"Well, we shall need a resupply of Sidewinder, Stinger, and Starstreak missiles earlier than scheduled," Hathor said. "We expended quite a few eliminating Moloc's air force."

"That won't be a problem," Hammond assured her. "I take it you… eliminated… Moloc?"

"Indeed," said Hathor. "We had rather hoped to kill him ourselves but one of our snipers picked him off at six hundred meters. He did not think to raise a shield when we were so far away. Disappointing, perhaps, but efficient. Your enemies, as Jack taught us, cannot hurt you if they are dead. Where is Jack, by the way? We would have thought he would be here by now."

"He's in the infirmary," Daniel informed her. "He was wounded in the fight but it's not serious."

"We have healing devices with us," Hathor said. "We would be pleased to assist with your wounded."

"What about your own casualties?" Hammond asked.

"Very few," said Hathor. "Six fatalities when a Death Glider crashed into our positions and a further five during the boarding action to capture Moloc's ha'tak. A mere handful of wounded. Their ground forces were broken and put to flight before they made it into staff weapon range. We have revived one of our dead already, during the transportation of the sarcophagus to the Chappa'ai, but could not spare the time to revive the rest. Once Janet Fraiser is restored we shall require use of the sarcophagus again."

"Of course," Hammond said. By this time the airman he had sent off on an errand had returned. Hammond spoke briefly to the man and then turned back to Hathor. "If you would have the sarcophagus brought this way, Queen Hathor," he said, "and perhaps you would like to retire to the VIP rooms? I'd guess you'll want to get cleaned up after your battle."

"Once Janet is restored," Hathor said. "We would like to be there when she awakens."

"You have the right," Hammond said. "Come this way."

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

"You are now officially my favorite Tok'ra," O'Neill told Hathor. "Sorry, Carter, but Jacob's just dropped to second place. Or is that third place? This two people in one body deal gets confusing."

"That's okay, sir," Sam said. "After this, Hathor and Andromeda are pushing my dad pretty close in my standings too."

"Sharper than a serpent's tooth," Jacob quoted, adopting an expression of mock wounded feelings.

"Hey, I didn't say you'd dropped out of the top slot, Dad," Sam said. "You're still number one – but it's down to a photo finish."

Janet was patting herself down as if checking that all her parts were still attached. "I can hardly believe it," she said. "Oh! Cassie! I have to see her!"

"Of course, Doctor," Hammond said. "Feel free to take as much time as you like. I think you're entitled to some sick leave after being dead."

Janet turned to Hathor. "Thank you, thank you," she said. "Not so much for me, but for my daughter. She's lost so much already and I'm so glad she doesn't have to lose me."

"You saved our lives," Hathor said. "This was only repaying our debt."

"I was only doing my duty as a doctor," Janet said.

"Yes, the Hippocratic Oath," Hathor said. "We knew Hippocrates. We granted him an audience, declared that he was not guilty of blasphemy, and bestowed upon him a hundred minae to fund his medical school."

"You did? Fascinating," Daniel said. "You have to tell me more."

"Later, Doctor Jackson," Hammond said. "I think we should give Doctor Fraiser some space, for the moment, and leave the Tok'ra to get on with, uh, raising their own dead. Perhaps we should adjourn to the briefing room. Queen Hathor, the VIP rooms are at your disposal."

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

Bregman's TV crew had been on the point of leaving the base when Hathor and her people had arrived. He'd turned around on hearing the commotion and soon had realized that something really special was going on. They hadn't let him into the secure areas at the time, and refused to answer any questions, but he'd persevered and now his efforts were being rewarded. Not that he would be allowed to broadcast this interview in the foreseeable future, of course, but one day it would pretty much guarantee him a Pulitzer.

Although, as the sound man fitted Queen Hathor with a microphone and the cameraman positioned himself and his equipment, Bregman had to confess to feeling slightly disappointed. Hathor seemed… too human. No tentacles, no scales, not even the green skin that would be compulsory if she was a Star Trek alien being romanced by James T. Kirk. He had a feeling her glossy auburn hair might be dyed, as her complexion seemed a touch more sallow than you'd expect in a natural redhead, but that only made her seem even more human.

Undeniably photogenic, though. He'd caught a glimpse of her earlier, when he was trying to get a close-up view of whatever was causing all the excitement, and she'd been somewhat grubby and wearing battle-stained BDUs. Now she was clean, clad in a simple but elegant sage green dress with a single slim golden bangle at each wrist, and the fragrance of expensive French perfume – or some alien analog – surrounded her. Conducting the interview wasn't going to be a hardship, that was for sure, unless she stonewalled like Teal'c had done when they'd attempted to interview the impassive alien warrior.

Hathor, though, seemed as if she was going to be co-operative. She took a close interest in the camera, and the sound gear, and commented "We of the Tok'ra have no equivalent of your TV. For centuries the Tok'ra have depended upon concealment, and upon being ready to flee at a moment's notice, and have had neither the need nor the facilities for broadcasts of news or entertainments." It was a pity the tape wasn't rolling yet, as it would have made a great sound-bite, but maybe he could bring the topic up again later.

He spoke to camera. "Now I'll be speaking to Hathor, Queen of the Tok'ra, who I'm informed is perhaps the most important ally of Earth."

"We are flattered that you say that," Hathor said, "but the Asgard might disagree. We are allies, certainly, and share many aims in common with the Tau'ri of Earth and co-operate in many endeavors."

Bregman hadn't expected her to speak at that point, before he'd addressed a question to her, but he didn't let it throw him off his stride. "Thank you, Your Majesty," he said. "So, you're the ruler of the Tok'ra, which I gather is a movement rather than a planet or a species."

Hathor inclined her head slightly. "You need not call us 'Majesty'," she said. "We are not absolute monarchs and have only two votes on the High Council of the Tok'ra. 'Your Highness', in recognition of Andromédē's rank as Princess of Milētos, would be a valid form of address."

"Miletus?" Bregman queried. "Where is that, Your Highness?"

"A Greek city in what is now Turkey," Andromeda explained, taking over from Hathor. "My father was King there in what Doctor Jackson tells me would be the 9th Century BC by your calendar."

Bregman had to fight to stop his jaw from dropping visibly. This woman, who looked to be in perhaps her late twenties, was three thousand years old. "You're from Earth?" he asked.

"We both are," Andromeda said. "Hathor was born there too, although four thousand years before me."

This offered a lead-in to a topic Bregman hadn't planned to deal with until later but he went with the flow and asked her to explain the whole 'two people in one body' thing. This led on to an explanation of how the Tok'ra differed from the Goa'uld.

Interesting, perhaps even fascinating, but only background material for the really big story. Bregman let her talk for a while, as it could be edited down as necessary later, but before long he decided it was time to get to the point.

"Your Highness," he said, "I'm told you… raised Doctor Fraiser from the dead."

"We provided the sarcophagus by which she was restored to life, yes," Hathor said.

"It seems almost… miraculous," Bregman said.

"No miracle, merely technology," Hathor said. "We can claim no credit for it. It was the creation of the Goa'uld scientist Telchak but he merely adapted the technology of another, more ancient, race."

"An amazing device nonetheless," Bregman said. "I'm told you fought a battle to obtain it solely so that you could… resurrect Doctor Fraiser."

"Our attack upon the despicable tyrant Moloc was inevitable," Hathor said. "Only the timing was affected by the news of Janet's death. We owed her our lives and, if there was any chance to save her in return, we were honor bound to try."

"You owed Doctor Fraiser your life… lives?"

"Indeed. Her skill, dedication, and compassion brought us back from the very brink of death. It was only appropriate that we should repay her in kind." Hathor dipped her head slightly. "This was before we became Queen of the Tok'ra and we had been enemies of the Tau'ri not long before. Yet she strove mightily to heal us, nonetheless, and succeeded."

"You were an enemy of Earth at one time?" Bregman probed.

"Not of Earth, but of the SGC," Hathor said. "We attempted to take over the base and use it as our stronghold. It was a foolish endeavor. We had been in stasis for two thousand three hundred years and had not grasped how much the world had changed as we slept. Our attempt was thwarted, primarily through the efforts of Samantha Carter, Janet Fraiser, and Teal'c, and we fled through the Chappa'ai."

Bregman raised his eyebrows. Things must have changed a lot since then. "I take it your next meeting was on more friendly terms," he prompted.

"Not at first," said Hathor. "Once out in the galaxy we discovered that the balance of power was shifting and unclear. We knew that without allies we would be vulnerable, and likely to be captured and enslaved, but we did not know with whom it would be best to seek an alliance. Then we heard of the Tok'ra. When we discovered that their Queen had been Egeria, Hathor's mother, and that she had disappeared long ago, we decided that they might be the safest group to approach. The trouble was that we had no knowledge of how they could be found. The Tau'ri were in contact with them, we discovered, and would know how to approach the Tok'ra. Yet our previous conflict made a simple request for information impossible. Therefore we concocted an elaborate scheme. We built a replica of the SGC, captured Jack and Sam and Doctor Jackson, and tried to convince them that they had been frozen for eighty years. It was not long before they saw through our deception…"


End file.
